Linear Accelerators in Radiotherapy: A Brief Introduction to Physical and Technical Design Features.

Abstract

The most widely used instrument in radiotherapy treatment is the linear accelerator. Since the first introduction into radiotherapy in 1952 a tremendous technical and physical development took place. It started with a stationary rontgen-like megavoltage equipment and is presently a web-like network including a computerized dynamically operating multi-modality linear accelerator. New components, such as asymmetrical jaws, multi-leaf collimator, virtual wedge, double-photon and multi-electron capability, high dose rates, automatic set-up and dynamical beam delivery, etc., improve machine handling and treatment of patients significantly. At present only three vendors offering medical linear accelerators with quite different technical solutions to produce useful electron and photon beams.